Businesses will be required to provide protective equipment to their employees and to establish occupational safety measures, in accordance with the guidelines of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

“This is about establishing an agenda that allows us a gradual transition within the quarantine to gradually reactivate those activities that, without neglecting protection measures and maintaining physical distancing, represent low risk of contagion for Puerto Rico,” said Vázquez Garced during a televised message.  

As countries and states consider lifting restrictions, the World Health Organization recommended that “health system capacities are in place to detect, test, isolate and treat every case and trace every contact.” But the U.S. territory, as of last week, had the lowest coronavirus testing rate in the country, performing an average of 15 tests a day for every 100,000 people.

Vázquez Garced said the plan to reopen the economy was approved by the medical and economic task forces, but did not mention if the island has reported a downward trajectory of cases or positive tests as a percent of total tests within a 14-day period as established by White House guidelines. 

Secretary of Health Lorenzo González Feliciano has said the island expects to reach its apex between May 4 and 8, when the new executive order goes into effect. He acknowledged yesterday that there have been problems tracing passengers that arrive to the island through its main airport. 

Puerto Rico has been on lockdown and under an overnight curfew since March 15 to contain the spread of Covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. The island’s Department of Health has reported 1,539 cases and 92 deaths as of Thursday.

Vázquez Garced said she will extend the 7 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew until May 25. People should only leave their house for essential services like medical appointments, grocery shopping and visits to the pharmacy, and they must wear masks when they go outside. But the new executive order will allow citizens to walk dogs, run, ride bicycles and perform other activities outside from 5 a.m. to 3 p.m., maintaining at least six feet apart between each person.

Starting next Monday, lawyers, engineers and accountants can reopen their offices, working with one client at a time and by appointments, and dentists, optometrists, can provide services again. Doctors and mental health professionals can continue to use telemedicine, but will now have the option to see patients in their offices. Meanwhile, moving, laundry, transportation, limited to taxi drivers and public carriers, financial, mortgage, insurance, real estate notary services will be allowed to reopen. 

Services in hardware stores, maintenance, repair, inspection and sale of vehicle parts can open from Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., following preventive measures and working by appointment.

Pharmacies and gas stations will continue to operate regularly seven days a week, and supermarkets and grocery stores will open from 5 a.m. to 8 p.m., allowing delivery services until 10 p.m., as established in previous executive orders. 

On May 11, construction and manufacturing industries can begin to operate again. Employers, in these cases, must develop specific plans to prevent infections and issue compliance certifications to the Department of Labor and Human Resources.

Vázquez Garced said she will evaluate the possibility of reopening retailers, barber shops, beauty salons, restaurants, among other businesses, between May 18 and 25.

“Little by little we are going to continue evaluating the reactivation of the economic movement, with mechanisms that allow the operation of more industries and services,” Vázquez Garced said. “But the health of all the families that live in this land is the priority.”

The post Puerto Rico plans to reopen parts of the economy appeared first on Pavement Pieces.

 “I’m instructing my administration to halt funding of the World Health Organization,” Trump said at a White House Press Briefing. “The WHO failed in its basic duty and must be held responsible.”

 The president was particularly critical towards the World Health Organizations’ decision to not restrict international travel to and from China and accused the World Health Organization of being China-centric.

 “The WHO’s attack on travel restrictions put political correctness above life-saving measures,” Trump said. “The WHO has failed to adequately obtain, vet and share information in a timely and transparent fashion.”

 The United States has long been one of the greatest contributors to the World Health Organization, providing funds of $400 million last year and experts warn that pulling funding away from the World Health Organization could have serious consequences.

 Trump’s decision to halt funding has come at a time when he himself has been receiving a lot of criticism for the poor handling of the coronavirus.

 The President had downplayed the threat of the virus and refused to listen to his advisors when they warned him of the potential consequences during the early stages of the pandemic.

 The United States is now leading in coronavirus infections and has the highest death toll worldwide. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported almost 600 thousand cases and nearly 23 thousand deaths in the county.

 When asked about his plan to reopen up the country, the Trump said he does not plan to put any pressure on governors.

 “I’m not going to put any pressure on any governor to open,” Trump said.

 This remark comes after Trump’s announcement at a press conference yesterday, that it was his decision, and not the governors, to reopen the country.

 New York State is the epicenter of the virus in the U.S. with an estimated 190,000  cases and over 10,000 deaths, New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo has insisted reopening the country during this time could be detrimental.

 “We do not have a King in this country,” Cuomo said at a press conference earlier today. “The worst thing we can do in all of this is start with political division.”

The post Trump stops WHO funding appeared first on Pavement Pieces.

 The President accused the WHO of focusing its response to the virus on China, despite the fact that the US last year donated far more to the organization than China did.

“Everything was China-centric,” said  Trump. “China spends 42 million, we spend 450 million and everything seems to be China’s way. That’s not right, it’s not fair to us and honestly it’s not fair to the world”.

Trump also blamed the WHO for initially downplaying the seriousness of the coronavirus, and being wrong in their early advice regarding the virus. Although the WHO only declared the virus to be a pandemic on March 11th, it described the virus as a “public health emergency of international concern” on January 30th – indicating that it was an international threat not just limited to China. On February 4th, the WHO escalated this classification to an epidemic with multiple locations. 

But  Trump continued to dismiss the virus’s seriousness as late as February 27th. This was despite a White House Memo presented on February 23rd showing a projected infection of 100 million Americans and 1 to 2 million deaths.

According to the Who from Jan 21 to  8 Apr 2020, there have been 363,321 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with 10,845 deaths in the U.S.

The memo, which was published on Tuesday, was prepared by White House trade advisor Peter Navarro and labeled “MEMORANDUM TO PRESIDENT”. It was sent through the National Security Agency, then-acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, and the COVID-19 task team. Today Trump denied having seen the memo in February. 

Trump continued to advocate for the use of anti-malaria medication hydroxychloroquine in treating the virus. This is despite Dr Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, having warned that there is no evidence to suggest that this medication is effective in treating COVID-19.

While testing has been limited, the FDA has reported serious side effects from the drug including irreversible retinal damage, cardiac arrhythmias, muscle weakness, severe drops in blood sugar, hallucinations and harmful interactions with other medications.  President Trump said that 30 million hydroxychloroquine pills were being released to treat the virus.

According to data from John Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering, there are currently 429,052 people infected with COVID-19 in the USA, more than any other country. President Trump today attributed the country’s high number of infections to the fact that testing has been more extensive in the USA than in other countries. 

“That’s testing,” said President Trump. “We’re testing more than anybody.”

However, according to Worldometer Coronavirus statistics, the USA ranks 44th in the world when it comes to the number of tests administered per million residents.

The post Trump continues to blame WHO for pandemic appeared first on Pavement Pieces.

“We’re going to put a hold on money spent to the WHO,” Trump said during a White House press briefing. We’re going to put a very powerful hold on it and we’re going to see.”

But minutes later, Trump reversed and said he “was looking into it.” He said, “I’m not saying I’m going to do it, but we are going to look at it.”

Trump appeared particularly upset with WHO’s opposition with his decision to restrict travel from China because of the  coronavirus back in Jan. 31, saying “they were wrong.” The group issued a statement saying countries should keep their borders open despite the outbreak. 

The WHO acknowledged, however, that travel restrictions “may have a public health rationale at the beginning of the containment phase of an outbreak,” allowing affected countries to implement response measures and non-affected countries the time to implement preparedness measures. 

Globally, more than 1.4 million cases of Covid-19, the disease caused by the novel virus, have been confirmed and deaths topped 81,000 as of Tuesday evening, according to John Hopkins University. The U.S. has reported more than 387,000 cases and over 12,000 deaths.

Trump acknowledged that Covid-19 disproportionately impacts African Americans.

 “It is showing up very strong in our data in the African American community and we are doing everything in our power to address this challenge,” he said.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, described the issue as an “exacerbation of a health disparity,” noting that conditions like diabetes, hypertension, obesity and asthma afflict minority populations.

“I will protect you if your governor fails. If you have a governor that is failing, we’re going to protect you,” said Trump during the press briefing. “But the governors are working well with us over the last period of time.”

Some governors, however, have said the Trump administration has failed to coordinate a national response to the crisis and that shortages of tests, ventilators and protective equipment have persisted. 

Trump said the government will receive 110,000 ventilators by the end of June, and that the U.S. will send 200 to the United Kingdom. 

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has said his state alone needs 40,000 ventilators, while Trump has questioned the state’s demands. 

Gov. Cuomo said today that coronavirus deaths in New York jumped by 731 since Monday, the highest single-day death spike yet in the state, for a total of 5,489 fatalities. 

“Behind every one of those numbers is an individual, is a family, is a mother, is a father, is a brother, is a sister,” Cuomo said at today’s press conference. “So, a lot of pain again today.” 

Cuomo described the deaths as lagging indicators of the number of hospitalizations, noting people who were admitted to hospitals at the peak weren’t successfully treated. Although the number of critically ill patients kept rising, he said, the curve of infection was plateauing in New York.

The hospital admissions of virus patients has slowed down. He said  the average of the 3-day hospitalizations rate has decreased. The number of patients in intensive care and daily intubation numbers have gone down.

Yesterday, Cuomo said the state, the epicenter of the outbreak in the country, may have reached its apex. He said New York on PAUSE  will continue until April 29 because, he said, there is evidence that social distancing is working.

The post Trump threatens to withhold U.S. funding for WHO appeared first on Pavement Pieces.